Russias Lukoil signed a US$1 billion oilfield service contract with Samsung Engineering on its West Qurna Phase Two oilfield.
"The contract is worth US$998mn," oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad was reported by AFP as saying, after a signing ceremony attended by Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi, Samsung vice president Park Ki-Seok and Lukoil Mid-East Ltd's Iskander Nasyrov.
The contract requires Samsung to build five well pads with 67 development wells, as well as infrastructure to extract and treat oil, and water intake equipment, as well as a variety of other requirements, over the course of 29 months, according to Lukoil.
"The project includes building a complete establishment on the ground to produce oil of around 500,000 bpd," said Luaibi.
Five companies, including Saipem, SNC Lavalin Group Inc, Punj Lloyd Ltd, Globalstroy Engineering and Samsung, were short-listed last year to compete for the contract.
Lukoil currently holds a 56.25 per cent stake in the group, while Norway's Statoil holds 18.75 per cent and Iraq's state oil company the remaining 25 percent. Earlier this month, however, Statoil said it is in the process of selling its stake in the project to Lukoil, a move that has been accepted by the Iraqi governmnet.
West Qurna-2 field in the south of the Iraq has known reserves of 12.876 billion barrels.
